Village Health Program

Project Number: 3052

Situation: Somaliland is a de facto independent state in West Somalia that has not yet received international recognition. Its history is marked by countless wars and conflicts, and although relative stability has been achieved since independence in 1991, many people still live in poverty. Especially women and children are affected by the aftermath of the conflicts.

Project Description: The Village Health Program is an initiative whereby PartnerAid works with village elders and leaders from the Salahley District of Somaliland to enable them to: identify community resources and needs, organize their community towards development, and begin community led and owned initiatives. This allows them the dignity of being involved in the development process and working towards development that has a lasting impact.

We empower these villages to implement a Village Health Program whereby village leaders select villagers to be trained as community health teachers in basic health promotion, treatment and referrals. With coaching and training, the village leadership manages the program to ensure that each community health teacher visits the 20-30 homes assigned to him or her. The village leaders are equipped to monitor and evaluate the impact of their development efforts and receive regular reports and updates from their health teachers.

The goal of the Village Health Program is sustainable improvement in health status for participating villages, meaning 80% have sustainable access to local health services and education, under five mortality is sustainably reduced by 50%, and maternal mortality is sustainably reduced by 25%. We are in conversation with other local actors as to how to ensure villages are able to establish health posts for their residents as well.